The remaining blood essence and Lifebound True Essence in Lin Hao’s body surprisingly stopped gushing out.

And this was happening even though the demon’s assault was far stronger than before.

The Evil Demon sensed something was wrong and lashed out, blasting a punch toward Lin Hao’s body.

However, something even stranger occurred.

Though Lin Hao’s body was clearly still there, the punch passed through it as if striking empty air.

The Evil Demon froze for a moment, then shot to its feet. It stared into the void as two beams of pitch-black light erupted from its black-hole eyes.

Vastly experienced, it realized Lin Hao might be having an epiphany—a breakthrough—and launched its most powerful attack.

Within Lin Hao’s Divine Sense, his spiritual form had become an Ink Dragon, pursuing a faint gleam of light. He was on the verge of catching it...

Suddenly, two beams of light appeared. They moved with incredible speed, their oppressive might shaking the heavens, as if they had traversed the very river of time.

They slashed out from the void, aiming to sever the Ink Dragon in two.

PFFT!

BOOM!

The two beams of light slashed down. Just as they touched the Ink Dragon, it vanished in a bizarre fashion. It then reappeared in a different location, resuming its chase of the faint light.

Dragons can ascend to the heavens and conceal themselves from sight.

This was a near-perfect display of that ultimate esoteric art.

The two beams of light were about to strike again, but with a flick of its tail, the Ink Dragon shattered them, scattering their remnants into the void.

Deep within the Demon Suppression Cave, the Evil Demon staggered backward.

"It seems I underestimated you! However..." Before it could finish, its gaze shot toward Lin Hao’s Dantian.

Two beams of light shot from its black-hole eyes, and a malevolent aura flooded the cave. Ling Xiao, still unconscious, began to tremble violently, his face a mask of agony.

The malevolent aura was overwhelmingly powerful.

The next moment, the two beams merged into one, forming a great black sword that slashed toward Lin Hao’s Dantian.

The moment the sword appeared, a bone-chilling cold spread out, followed by a pervasive aura of death, as if the Grim Reaper himself had descended.

The great black sword struck Lin Hao’s Dantian.

BOOM!

The sword slammed into the Dantian, creating a thunderous noise like two meteorites colliding.

In the distance, startled awake by the malevolent aura, Ling Xiao came to. The moment he sensed the danger, he completely forgot his surroundings and instinctively began circulating his energy to defend himself.

However, a deafening roar washed over him. Even using the full power of his Elemental Realm cultivation, he couldn’t withstand the shockwave. Blood streamed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and he passed out once more.

Meanwhile, a mysterious divine light swirled around Lin Hao’s Dantian, and the great black sword was completely unable to breach it.

Moreover, the Tai Chi Array Map, having been struck, began to spin wildly. In a single instant, it devoured the great black sword.

"That’s impossible!" the Evil Demon shrieked in disbelief.

It knew its own techniques perfectly. Such a strike would destroy the Dantian of a Soul Gathering Realm Martial Artist, let alone a cultivator in the mere Blood Coagulation Realm.

"An Emperor’s Art... Which Emperor’s Art could this be?!" But it was, after all, an ancient Giant Demon. It recovered in an instant and began to speculate which Emperor’s Art could possess such heaven-defying power.

"I don’t care which Emperor’s Art it is! Before my Supreme Skill, all will crumble to dust!" But a mere second later, its face twisted with savagery. It thrust out its hand and grabbed at Lin Hao’s Dantian.

BOOM!

The Evil Demon’s hand shot toward Lin Hao’s Dantian and clamped down on it.

A flicker of pain finally crossed Lin Hao’s face.

A malevolent grin spread across the Evil Demon’s face as it abruptly squeezed.

Lifebound True Essence began to pour from Lin Hao’s Dantian, visible to the naked eye.

In the Evil Demon’s grasp, Lin Hao’s Dantian began to shrink.

The pain on Lin Hao’s face intensified.

If this continued, Lin Hao would certainly perish.

Worse still, Lin Hao’s Divine Sense seemed oblivious to the crisis his physical body was facing; it was still chasing that point of light.

As the light drew nearer, the Ink Dragon let out a cry of joy and suddenly accelerated...

But back in the Demon Suppression Cave, Lin Hao’s Dantian had become pitifully small.

A smile of absolute certainty appeared on the Evil Demon’s face.

But just then, a power that was both terrifying and sacred erupted from within Lin Hao’s Dantian.

In a single instant, the hand gripping Lin Hao’s Dantian was stripped of its flesh, leaving only white bone.

The process continued to spread up its arm at an unimaginable speed.

In the blink of an eye, the Evil Demon’s fleshy form was gone, replaced by a skeleton—or rather, a bare frame of bones.

But this skeleton was different from the others that had appeared before. It was not entirely without flesh; new muscle seemed to be growing on its bony frame.

What was even more terrifying was that the Flowing Light Divine Flame had not yet been extinguished, and the skeleton seemed to be using its energy to refine its own body.

To be able to accomplish this under the Flowing Light Divine Flame, this skeletal body had to be nearly as strong as Lin Hao’s own.

This was the Evil Demon’s true form. It, too, possessed a powerful Body Refinement technique and aimed to forge its body into an indestructible weapon.

However, the terrifying power that erupted from Lin Hao’s Dantian had forced the Evil Demon to reveal its true form.

"Damn it!" The Evil Demon clearly understood what had happened and flew into a rage.

But it still didn’t let go.

Terrifying energy was gathering in Lin Hao’s Dantian; if it let go, the consequences would be even more severe.

And the Evil Demon had absolute confidence in this body of its.

It had been slain here an unimaginably long time ago. Its body had been tempered even before Emperor Hongtian discovered it. Later, Emperor Hongtian shattered its remnant soul, but it had managed to escape complete destruction by relying on this body, which had been broken at the time.

Thousands of years had passed since its remnant soul reawakened. After such a long period of refinement, its body was now very close to the perfect form it sought to create.

Therefore, it was absolutely confident it could crush Lin Hao’s Dantian!

However, what happened next was something the Evil Demon found impossible to believe.

Chaos Qi was seeping from Lin Hao’s Dantian—and it was exceptionally pure.

The Evil Demon tried to pull its hand back, but it was a step too late.

BOOM!

It was only a slight tremor, but the consequences were astounding.

Under the force of that tremor, the Evil Demon’s entire skeletal hand, along with its arm, disintegrated into dust!

If it hadn’t dodged quickly enough, its entire body might have been obliterated.

It was an utterly astonishing sight.

The Evil Demon’s body was easily as tough as Lin Hao’s, yet it had been turned to ash by a mere tremor.

The oppressive might of the Power of Chaos was world-shaking.

The Evil Demon stared at Lin Hao’s Dantian with its black-hole eyes, seemingly hesitant and uncertain.

Just then, a look of joy flickered across Lin Hao’s face.

The Evil Demon immediately caught this subtle change. In the next instant, black smoke began to pour from its body. Its remaining hand swelled to several times its normal size and shot out to grab Lin Hao.

The grab was accompanied by a heaven-blotting aura of evil and terror, and the very air around it cracked with explosive pops.

This was the ultimate expression of power!

It was impossible to tell how much power that single claw contained.

CRACK!

In the next moment, the massive, evil hand seized Lin Hao’s body, and the sound of cracking bones echoed.

As the hand tightened its grip, the sound of bones shattering grew louder.

From within the hand’s grasp, divine light spilled out and Chaos Qi billowed, struggling to break free.

However, the hand’s strength was beyond imagination. All their efforts seemed futile.

Black energy surged from all over the Evil Demon’s body and poured into its hand. The divine light was quickly drowned out by the blackness, and even the Chaos Qi was suppressed.

The hand continued to tighten its grip. A long time passed.

When the hand finally opened, Lin Hao’s body had been reduced to a pile of crushed bones, all of it shrouded in black energy. Only his spinal column remained intact.

"Hahaha! No matter how heaven-defying your Cultivation Technique is, you cannot escape death at the hands of my Supreme Profound Skill!" With the outcome decided, the Evil Demon roared with laughter.

"Sigh... a pity. Such a fine physical body, that Emperor’s Art True Essence, and that wild, untamable Divine Soul," the Evil Demon lamented, casually tossing the pile of crushed bones aside.

Its regret lasted only for a moment before it turned and walked toward Ling Xiao.

"If I had obtained that Emperor’s Art True Essence and that body, I could have reshaped my own body and repaired my Divine Soul ahead of schedule. Now, I’ll have to wait. Kid, count yourself lucky!" As it spoke, the Evil Demon tapped Ling Xiao on the head, then grabbed his body and tossed it upward.

Ling Xiao’s body instantly disappeared from the cave.

"More than forty years ago, I was at a critical juncture in my Cultivation Technique and let that brat escape twice. As a result, not a single person has entered the Demon Suppression Cave in over forty years! But now, that’s about to change. I will soon see the light of day once more, and the name of the Ten Thousand Blood Demon Emperor will echo through the ages! Heheheh..."

The Evil Demon’s eerie laughter echoed through the depths of the Demon Suppression Cave, chilling to the bone.

「At that very moment」

Ling Xiao’s body landed not far from the nine-way fork at the entrance to the Demon Suppression Cave.

A short while later, the motionless Ling Xiao stirred.

He opened his eyes and looked around in a daze before abruptly sitting up.

He shook his head, and the confusion in his eyes gradually gave way to clarity, his gaze growing brighter.

He got to his feet, but just as he was about to take a step, he found someone standing before him.

"Disciple greets Master." Ling Xiao took a step back, the tension in his body instantly draining away as he hastily knelt. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The one who appeared before Ling Xiao was none other than the Sect Leader of the Heaven-Stepping Sect, Wu Taichu.

A warmth spread through Ling Xiao’s heart at the sight of him. He was especially moved when he saw the ecstatic joy on Wu Taichu’s face.

However, upon seeing Ling Xiao, the ecstatic expression on Wu Taichu’s face faltered.

"Xiao’Er, you’re out! And your cultivation has even reached the Sixth Layer of the Elemental Realm." Wu Taichu saw through Ling Xiao’s cultivation level with a hint of pleasure.

For his cultivation to reach the Sixth Layer of the Elemental Realm after a single trip into the Demon Suppression Cave was a sign of truly monstrous talent. Normally, Wu Taichu would have been ecstatic, but right now, he was in no mood to celebrate.

Ling Xiao was about to speak when he heard Wu Taichu continue, "Have you seen... Lin Hao?"

"Lin Hao? He went into the Demon Suppression Cave, too?" Ling Xiao asked with a frown.

Who knew what trick the Evil Demon had played, but Ling Xiao had no memory of ever encountering Lin Hao in the cave.

"Of course he did! I’ve been waiting here for days, but there’s been no word from him. It’s driving me mad," Wu Taichu said, his face etched with anxiety. His tone held none of the dignified composure expected of a Sect Leader.

The corner of Ling Xiao’s mouth twitched.